1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to a logistics management systems and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for simulating a physical environment to facilitate vehicle operation and task completion.
2. Description of the Related Art
Entities regularly operate numerous facilities in order to meet supply and/or demand goals. For example, small to large corporations, government organizations and/or the like employ a variety of logistics management and inventory management paradigms to move objects (e.g., raw materials, goods, machines and/or the like) into a variety of physical environments (e.g., warehouses, cold rooms, factories, plants, stores and/or the like). A multinational company may build warehouses in one country to store raw materials for manufacture into goods, which are housed in a warehouse in another country for distribution into local retail markets. The warehouses must be well-organized in order to maintain and/or improve production and sales. If raw materials are not transported to the factory at an optimal rate, fewer goods are manufactured. As a result, revenue is not generated for the unmanufactured goods to counterbalance the costs of the raw materials.
Unfortunately, physical environments, such as warehouses, have several limitations that prevent timely completion of various tasks. These tasks include object handling tasks, such as moving pallets of goods to different locations within a warehouse. For example, most warehouses employ a large number of forklift drivers and forklifts to move objects. In order to increase productivity, these warehouses simply add more forklifts and forklift drivers. Some warehouses utilize equipment for automating these tasks. As an example, these warehouses may employ automated forklifts to carry objects on paths. Objects within these warehouses, however, must have a known, consistent size and shape in order to be handled by automatic equipment. In other words, the tasks must be well-defined otherwise the automatic equipment cannot properly execute each and every step of the handling procedure.
In conventional automation solutions, numerous tasks cannot be completed without a modicum of remote intervention. For example, tasks that are not well-defined cannot be completed without a human operator assisting the automatic equipment and/or correcting mistakes. The automatic equipment typically makes mistakes when reading object information or moving irregular objects. The conventional automation solutions, however, cannot provide the human operator with visibility of the entire physical environment. The human operator cannot examine the physical environment from any viewpoint.
Such a limitation is problematic because the viewpoint relative to a real forklift is far from optimal since the mast and loadguard obscure a considerable portion of the field of view. In a physical environment, these obstructions are difficult to remove. Sometimes, human operators must physically lift and move these obstructions. In addition, an automated forklift cannot automatically ascertain if a given route or path is clear of these obstacles. Some solutions rely on indexed fork positions or rulers on a racking side to achieve specific heights. Such solutions are also inaccurate and do not re-route in response to the obstacles.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for a method and apparatus for simulating a physical environment to facilitate vehicle operation and task completion using visual representations from any desired viewpoint.